What is a Production Organizations Approvals (POA)?
The approval by the Certification Authority of a Production Organization in the aeronautical sector is the recognition that this organization complies in the sense described in Part 21 Subpart G of Annex I of Regulation (EU) 748/2012.
It is applicable to those production activities that fall within the scope of work of EASA, as set out in article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139.
Here below, we explain the main points that the organization must have to obtain approval.
Production organization exposure (POE)
First, you must deliver the Production Organization Statement (POE) or POE outline, including the organizational structure, roles and responsibilities of the responsible managers.
In the case of a scheme, the information must relate the number of sites, the special processes used, the criticality of the parts, the proportion of subcontracted work.
The Production Organization can decide to produce the SOP in 2 ways:
- A main document that briefly describes the quality system and references other internal documents that provide more detail or,
- A document that contains all the information and details of the quality system.
User guide
The authority distributes to the production company a User’s Guide for the audit of the production organization, it is very important to know this guide that gives us the clues to properly design the production organizational structure:
- Number of sites to be audited, production centers
- Type of audit (initial, changes, follow-up audits, findings, etc.)
- Size of the organization
- Nature of the services to be covered by the production organization and their direct impact on aviation safety
- Appropriate technical experts
- Interview of key personnel nominated by EASA Form 4,
- Verify that the SOP reflects the organization, its procedures, practices and 21. A.143,
- Sample (product) audits at the job level to verify that:
- The work is carried out in accordance with the system described in the SOP and its associated procedures.
- The products, parts, appliances or materials produced by the organization are in accordance with the Design Data.
- Facilities, working conditions, equipment and tools are in accordance with the SOP and are appropriate for the Work being performed.
- The competence and number of staff are appropriate for the work being done.
- Coordination between production and design is documented and satisfactory.
- The responsible manager should be interviewed during the investigation process, because he is ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance with the requirements for the initial award and subsequent maintenance of the production organization’s approval.
Findings made during the investigation process will be handled in accordance with Part 21 Subpart G Section B and its associated AMC/GM.
Findings will be raised and classified in accordance with Part 21. A.158.
After all planned investigations have been completed, a team meeting will be held to review the findings and observations.
Corrective Action Plan
For any finding, the organization’s quality system shall propose a corrective action or a corrective action plan designed in a way to identify and record:
- The find
- The principal cause
- The relevant immediate action
- Long-term preventive action
- Appropriate time scales
The corrective action period granted by EASA for any finding will need to be appropriate to the nature of the finding. During the audit report with the POA holder, a reasonable period will be determined that should allow the POA holder to take corrective action, including root cause actions, but in any case initially it should not exceed 3 months. The following will be required:
Provide evidence of the implementation of the corrective/preventive action according to the corrective action plan.
The process is complex but very useful for the company to be able to guarantee the safety of its products against the authority.
At CENTUM, we provide companies with tools that automate and digitize certification processes.
